Democrat Miro Weinberger celebrates after being elected mayor of Burlington on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. / GLENN RUSSELL, Free Press

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The post-election crowd at Nectar’s didn’t need warming up before Mayor-elect Miro Weinberger took the stage at 8:30 p.m. They’d been reveling in Democrat’s victory for the better part of an hour.

Steve Howard, the city’s party chairman, accordingly kept his introduction short: “This is the moment you’ve been waiting 30 years for.”

Waiting in the wings, Weinberger waited for his entrance.

“I’m good. I’m good. I feel good!” he roared to a small coterie of supporters offstage, barely audible above the tumult of well-wishers.

The crowd, numbering more than 200, roared even louder when Weinberger took the stage.

He basked for an instant in the hail of raised glasses and voices.

“Wow,” he said.

A generation without a Democratic mayor in Burlington had ended.

Interrupted by gales of applause, Weinberger launched into an extended thank-you to the hundreds of volunteers, the handful of staffers and the smattering of party officials who swept him to a decisive defeat of Republican Ward-4 City Councilor Kurt Wright. In uncertified numbers, Weinberger won 5,801 votes to Wright’s 3,746, a margin of 58 percent to 37 percent. The third-place finisher, independent Wanda Hines, received 506 votes, or 5 percent.

It was Wright’s third unsuccessful run for mayor.

Weinberger, a developer and airport commissioner, had never run for public office.

“This city is ready for a fresh start, and that fresh start begins tonight,” he said, driving home his signature stump slogan. “It is only with this type of political support that a political outsider with a funny name that no one knew how to pronounce could end up right here tonight,” he added. “ Thank you guys!”

News of Wright’s slim victory in Ward 7, in his traditional New North End stronghold, coupled with strong Weinberger showings in Wards 1 and 3, forecast the election’s outcome just minutes after the polls closed at 7 p.m.

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Wright’s face fell, and he quietly conceded — even before appetizers were served to the Republicans and other supporters gathered at the Scuffer Steak and Ale House on Church Street, which had been festooned for a party.

“It’s over,” he told the Burlington Free Press. “I gave it my best shot. It’s a tough city for a Republican.”

The election drew more than 10,100 voters to the polls — 39 percent of the city’s 25,728 active voters, according to Burlington’s acting chief administrative officer.

Wright, also a Vermont state representative, held court in the same restaurant where he had conceded the mayor’s race three years ago to Progressive Bob Kiss, who did not seek a third term this year.

The sound system at the Scuffer obliged with an unkind irony: a morose rendering of “Dust in the Wind” as the result became apparent.

At the Scuffer, Churchill’s smart-phone registered a message. He glanced at its screen and winced.

“It’s Ed Adrian. I owe him a beer,” Churchill said, referring to the Ward 1 Democratic city councilor. “It’s not the end of the world.”

But Weinberger’s victory signaled the end of Wright’s mayoral aspirations — he’d announced in February that he would no longer seek the office.

“I want to thank my supporters for all their years of support,” he told the quiet crowd. “It’s meant a great deal to me. I can’t thank them enough. We gave it our best shot. It just wasn’t meant to be.”

The crowd of about 40 loudly protested when Wright suggested that maybe he’d let them down.

The Ward 4 seat that Wright vacated to run for mayor went to Democrat Bryan Aubin.

Churchill, nursing a consolation drink, said the Republican Party in Vermont “has a lot to learn” before it can regain ground. And to do so, he said, it might need to distance itself from the national GOP on some issues.

“We’ve got to get back to creating a future, and not preventing a future that we’re afraid of,” Churchill said.

Later, as the crowd thinned, he nursed a glass of amber liquid and clutched a plastic bag of cigars, still sealed.

Hines couldn’t be reached for comment, but she told Channel 17 public-access television that the campaign had been a learning experience.

“This is where I wanted to be; this is where I needed to be,” she said.

Weinberger, meanwhile, said he’s looking forward to a long weekend — and the assemblage of his transition team.

He appealed to his loud supporters to remain engaged.

“Burlington is truly a remarkable place where virtually anything is possible,” Weinberger said in his victory speech. “Getting there, however, will not be easy. We have great challenges in the years to come. The city needs your help more in the next three years than it’s needed in the last three months.”